The Britannia Banker storms the Lickey Incline! 29/05/10. Lizzie and 9600!!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.พ. 2025
- Due to a fault with Oliver Cromwell, Princess Elizabeth replaced it on the railtour. Firstly, we see the Banker 9600 run light engine down the Lickey Incline to Bromsgrove. Then the Princess (with 9600 on the rear) climbs the 1 in 37 Lickey Incline, pasted on the way by a Class 170 and then a shed brings a freight down the incline.
This is the first time I have used a mono-pod and some of the pictures are shaky or not level. Practice makes perfect!
Thanks to AY76 and KBrailvids for the company on the day, please watch their vids as well.
That pannier is absolutely flat out...love it!!
That is just epic! 6201's sharp 4 cylinder beat combined with the blasting away of the pannier on the back is sheer awesome. Fantastic vid!
As a kid used to watch big bertha pushing the passenger trains that had stopped at Bromsgrove station she was a massive banker have great memories standing at the low end of Blackwell station, this video rekindled lots of memories thanks
Brian Foster That’s a lovely memory, it’s really nice when people who have such memories comment. Many thanks for commenting, I’m glad you liked it.
What an amazing sight! Who would have believed that, as recently as 2010, Network Rail could still muster a GWR Pannier Tank to act as a Banking Engine!
Brilliant!!!
This view give you a real idea of how steep this gradient is. Really amazing!
The power now and then that is needed to get heavy freight and passenger trains over this comes to mind. 🚂
buntik1687 It is a real climb, I have other videos of trains been banked up the Lickey. Thanks for watching and commenting.
One in 37 and a half.
Very few countries still do this kind of thing.Well done Britain for keeping Steam going.
It's our heritage so we should keep it going, they are amazing machines. Thanks for watching and commenting.
Thanks
@MG06ZT yes. But at the same time it is something for every country and yet belgium has banned main line steam and has maybe 2 heritage railways, where at least one is run by a WD austerity 0-6-0 tank.
@nielsleenknegt5839Unacceptable.
and who ever thought of using a panier tank steam loco to bank the steam passenger train in stead of a diesel should of got a medal that really is a blast from the past why can't we have that every day
True
Indeed but I think 4fs with Lizzy would have been more appropriate or one of the 7f's!
@Biker Boiy DOWN WITH
LEFTISTS!!!
If big Bertha was in the workshop they used either two or three 0-6-0s during the 50s 60s 70s with the size of the trains as a diesel locomotives you’d had to a deltic there I don’t think so have seen Bertha and two tanks on a really heavy freight.
Yeah and there's no reason why they can't! Fed up of the diesel Banker spoiling the shots
Gotta love the little Panniers, despite their old they still are very useful on the mainline :)
Hi just watched some of the vids of the trains coming up the incline.What great memories it brought back,I was born in Redditch and used to cycle to Blackwell to watch the steam engines come up and down the incline,i remember big Berther the banking engine pushing the passenger and loaded goods trains up the Licky incline,it was sight to behold,this was in the fifties & sixties i was a keen train spotter in those days and travelled up to Brum newstreet then to Snowhill to get the king class locos and managed to foot plate quite afew of them if the driver or fireman were friendly great days.I think it used to cost 2d (old money) for a platform ticket so you could get close to the engines.If only video cameras had been around then what footage there could have been to look at now.Thanks for putting the footage on u-tube,you brought back many great times i spent watching these fantastic pieces of machinery doing the job they were built to do.
Awesome! I have visited the same spot only once, as I'm from Holland, but it's nice to hear all those trains working hard to get up the hill. These steamers make it even better! Very nice video!
I can’t count the number of times I’ve watched this, and it still satisfies me as if I’ve never seen it before, every time I watch it. Simply superb. Let’s have Sunday rail travel with heritage traction only, steam and old diesel, think of the numbers of passengers it would attract on top of the normal Sunday passengers. It’s doable! Great video. Still loving it!!
Many thanks, glad you like it. Thank you for taking the time to comment. It would be good to have heritage days, you never know. There has been so few tours this year.
I used to cycle to the top of the incline quite frequently from where I lived in my early teens, a distance of about 15 miles, when diesels were extremely rare, so saw lots of scenes like this. My friends and I used to sit on the grass bank about 200 yards below the summit. The best sounds would be Jubilee pulling 9 or more carriages, with a BR 2-10-0 banking at the rear.
Hope it brought back memories, thanks for watching and commenting.
The r
Reverend W. Awdry also lived near the lickey incline, and it was the inspiration for Gordon's Hill
Lovely pair of locos
You just have to love how beautifully LOAD Lizzie is!!!
Thanks :-)
Excellent camera work, thanks for posting.
Wow! Great shot! You don't see that very often! Nice to see a steam banker!
Matt Seymour Thanks, it is unusual to see a steam banker. It does happen occasionally on railtours.
@@keithturner3602 it Sure is! They should replace all the diesel bankers with them
Steam, noise, power
I love watching steam locos working hard
Great video
Joshua Gadsby It’s great isn’t it! Thank you.
You say thanks for watching, I'd like to say a big thanks so very much for posting this, great to watch the old girl getting a shove from another old one
Thanks Fred. Even with nearly 50,000 views I do thank everyone who has watched and, especially, commented on this video. It's great that we can share our hobby/videos with other people. As the wires will be going up on the Lickey Incline in 2015/6 the clear shots will soon end. The overhaul on the Princess is doing well, she should be back out on the mainline before to long. The Panniers are a real Tyseley asset. Thanks again, Keith.
Absolutely amazing Keith, Cromwell and the Black 5 were good, but not a patch on this....what an action packed few minutes...Thanks for letting me enjoy it...Bob
What a great video! You can really see how steep the Lickey Incline is so thank you.
Absolutely awesome thanks for sharing. Th eonly thing missing is the smell !
You captured the location so well, the atmosphere is almost like being there.
I have taken that route on passenger transport for years. But WHAT A CAPTURE of the "tangent" or "apex" or Lickey. That was good but the banker and steam and coal outstandingness was equally as good. SUPERB heritage capture with moderns passing-by.
Thanks for the help, I wish I was around in the early 60's to see it!!
Never mind thanks for watching!! Thanks for the video, absolutely brilliant. 5*. It really shows how steep this climb is and how easy 6201 is making of it. Granted the 9600 is full on at the back but had she got a free run at the incline would probably have got up unaided at some speed. Hats off to the banker. Regards Dave.
Great video - thanks for sharing with us !
Glad you like it, thanks for watching and commenting!
Very good video, I'm tempted to say with all that black smoke it must have been the pannier that was doing all the work! It is often surprising just what these smaller locomotives can do.
4 panniers are stronger than a 9F
Hey - great vid. Boy, were you lucky with those down trains.That is some steep bank.
PE - impressive hill climbing for an express passenger engine. As for 9600 - weight for weight and wheel turn for wheel turn (!!!) mightily impressive!!!
Thank you for your message and I hope you have a wonderful right Royal day on the Railtour, great !
Some really excellent video here! You tracked the train up the bank which added a great deal especially with the the Class 66 showing how close everybody was to photographic disaster!! - Thanks for sharing - that must have been superb - Video and film never does justice to the sheer loudness of the noise! - Mike
excellent film there, you had the right spot staked out. that little tank wasnt half chuckin it out. well done
The last set of bankers on the Lickey in steam days were a BR standard 2-10-0 and 6 Hawksworth panniers 8400-5 which worked in pairs, so the pannier in this video is not entirely unauthentic. I can remember sitting in the fields next to the incline all day one Saturday watching them all trot up and down. The former Midland banking engine nicknamed Big Bertha was withdrawn long before this. Steam in ordinary service finished on British Railways in 1967 and it would have finished on this Midland line a year or possibly more before that.
great work, great engines, immortal incline!
Thanks, it is a really nasty climb. They did well.
Best noise I've heard all day
Great video mate, thumbs up and fav'd
i remember the lickey as being a slow bit, on the way from Swindon to Derby, mum called it Bromsgrove, i just wanted to get going, as there was home made bakewells at Grans ! now i live overseas, and maybe one day will go and see a steam special climb it again !
Good memories! Bakewells always a winner. Hopefully, you will get back to see it. Time passes so quickly. Many thanks for watching and commenting.
Love to see that banker working 👍
Brilliant isn’t it! Looking forward to next time.
@HughFromAlice Thanks for your comment. The Lickey Incline is just about the steepest piece of mainline in the UK and built for steam!! The down train caused a problem for people lineside lower down the line, a risk you take. She was built for the West Coast Mainline and it has some nice banks, Shap, etc. So she knows her way up a hill.
The next new steam locomotive build, should be the unique Fowler? tank engine class 0-10-0, 4 cylinder Lickey banker, Big Bertha. Guards in the brake van at the rear of freight trains used to express real fear when Big Bertha would ease up to the rear buffers of their vans, as once onto the incline, Bertha's driver would feed out her regulator to full, & those inclined 4 cylinders would begin squeezing the brake van against the train ahead of it, almost to destruction. Guards used to say that the moaning & groaning of the frame & woodwork of the van under the titanic effort used to scare the bejesus out of them! A 9F 2-10-0 on the old Somerset & Dorset railway once recorded a drawbar pull on a bank of 2,400 DBHP on full regulator & 55% cut off at 40 mph. But that was from a 2 cylinder engine. Bertha had 4 of them.
Would be nice to see a new Bertha! Don’t think we will through. It must have been amazing to see her operate. Many thanks for watching and commenting.
That little Pannier was easily the star of the show, regulator wide open in full forward gear !
It’s a shame none of the LMS/LNER Garrats didn’t survive into preservation. Seeing and hearing one or even two of those engines attacking the Lickey Incline would’ve been awe-striking.
The noise from the panier was incredible
ここは、小さい頃に見ていた「機関車トーマス」に出てくるゴードンの丘のモデルになったところですね。
蒸気機関車の後部補機が奮闘する姿は、もう日本では見られません。一生のうちに一度は見に行きたいですね。
I'm a choo choo train and I approve this video!!!
The word 'awesome' is much over-used these days, but THAT is AWESOME!! (What I would have given to be on the footplate of either engine... ) Thanks for posting.
I get the impression the Crew in Princess Elizabeth seem a lot more skilled with their coal in the firebox than the pannier, evident from the lack of any dark colour out of her funnel whereas in the pannier it's all black.
I remember from some of AndyDandanFisher's video of true revenue steam and they all have proper work to do with experienced crew, when under load steam ALWAYS is white like that, black smoke indicates too much coal and efficient fire cooling
@MG06ZT I bet it was =), the engines sure we working (the 9600 working harder since she was at the back XD)
the sound of them working tho was fantastic ^^, wish I could have been there, thanks for uploading this
Damn! I never even knew a Pacific got to attack this grade!
She did well, can’t wait till the next time😀
Magnifique !! What a sight. Not sure how you managed to find a prime place, must have been hundreds there at that little crossing !
Bloody Hell!! 9600 seems to be slogging harder than Lizzie!! Helllfire stuff!!
It probably is. Mini beast!! Cheers.
@@keithturner3602 London Transport used locos of this class until 1971 I believe?
Yes, I believe they were the last users of Panniers.
its fantastic to steam return to the lickey incline =) its like seeing it in steam days again
David36bromsgrove is quite right that they never used to couple up, nowadays H&S means they have to couple up before leaving Bromsgrove.
With the railtour the Pannier was coupled to the train and had to stay on the back for the reverse at Landor Junc.
Modern trains the banker will be coupled and the train stops at the top of the incline at Blackwell, where there is a loop, and the banker will detach.
@scotsguardsman100 Thanks. The station at the bottom is Bromsgrove, from which you can see trains going up the incline. After the top the first station is Barnt Green, this is further away. Where I was filming is near Burcot, Red Diamond do an infrequent bus service check out their website.
thats a great sight seeing the steam banking
It’s brilliant! Thanks.
@@keithturner3602 yeah thank u
@@thebrummierailenthusiasts5329a cascable chill with some jack the pepper chilli oil?
Absolutely stunning!
This vid has made my day!
@KBRAILVIDEOS It was better than Christmas!!!! Pannier, Steels, Lizzie and all them XC turbo Hoover things!!!!
excellent video
Thank you
Great video. Just shows how powerful the little old Pannier is! We should scrap the modern day trains and bring steam back. Better sight and sound!
I wonder what the passengers on the turbostar thought, that suddenly roaring past.
The moment at about 5;45 is good, with the sun on the smoke and the lights of the 66 appearing.
With Pannier on the back to train is limited to 45mph, but from King's Norton it uses the Camp Hill goods line so it's not a major problem and as soon as it gets close to Brum it tends to get slowed with the Landor St Junc area being so busy.
As for banking, i'm not correct. The current policy is that a banker can buffer up and push the train. However, when DB introduced new wagons with American knuckle couplers and no buffers it meant the loco had to couple up and 66055-59 were modified.
Many thanks for your comment, gave me another chance to watch the vid - not that I need one! I was a long day, but worth every second the see the Princess in fine form. I'm glad you liked it. I travelled on the trip this year up the Lickey and filmed some on board footage, please check it out. To be on the footplate would be priceless!! Cheers.
Wow. Great footage.
Many thanks.
Tremendous show of power
wow, you saw the steels!!!! horray lol
fantastic 5* + fav
Just a couple working girls on the Lickey. Somewhere, an ol' girl with a big lamp and ten big wheels is smiling.
Bertha was a grand lass 🙂
Dear Mr Buckeyeman, Perhaps you should watch some Swiss and German mainline steam videos, often with 30-40 bogie wagons, double headed and banked. These countries have focused on proper mainline preservation from the start, mostly with national collections being operated, including the SBB heritage collection of electric locos and a complete 1960s TEE train set. The sort of thing we just don’t do!
By the way, I doubt if either of these countries would tolerate such a dip to the expansion joint on the ‘up line’. I know it’s a long lens, but surely such devises should be used to check track…. It’s not the only place that I have seen such terrible track alignment.
You are correct, by modified I meant fitted with cab auto-uncouplers - the information was implied if not stated. Thanks.
Really showed the steepness of the incline
Its nice to see that pannier tanks are still useful as bankers and really their is not a modern day equivalent to replace them considering that most specials just use Class 60/66's
Not as Good as a Pannier! :)
9400 panniers were seen often banking in late steam days. 9600, pictured here, was doing very well considering the 94s were much beefier. Surprised they could manage to get hold of a pannier for the first time in about 60 years.
I think they come from the railway centre at Tysley.
Glad you liked it, it was a great trip. Many thanks for the comment.
@sierraxr4icosie Funny, that. Because Gordon's Hill was based off the Lickey Incline.
lovely video well done awsome to see
nick cox hull
wooooww what sound! Great vid too. To bad about the two trains coming down the incline but that's just how it goes sadly!
Thanks, I enjoyed every second of the video.
Smashing video, so stirring, is this the engine that is paying tribute to HM THe Queen on the bridge on Jubilee Pageant day. Still remember my model and train set of this.
@NN2Blue If you are into steam this is as good as it gets! At 4.02 the pair blasting away, unbeatable! The vid isn't perfect, but i'm glad you like it.
WOW indeed, awesome video, what a wonderful sight to see the steamers really thundering n working hard up the incline! Bet the smell of the steam was just wonderful & great timing with the 66 too :D
@37401MadRich Thanks very much, glad you enjoyed it!
@robmasterman Cheers Bob, I carn't believe four engines in such a short period. Roll on the next one!
@letmadnessbegin Cheers, nice to see whats making the noise!
I'd like to know if the banker was attached to the rear of the train. I've always understood that Lickey bankers simply buffered up to the rear and then fell away when the summit had been reached. If it was coupled, then the train would have had to be stopped somewhere near Barnt Green for detachment.
Does anyone know?
This would be perfect for a vintage esque edit if the Turbostar and modern signal isn't there
@paaltje91 Thanks very much for your comment, it would be a long trip all the way from Holland. I'm glad you liked the video.
Keith should invest in a tripod, his camera work is all over place
Thanks again, all is clear now.
@TangmereTornado Thanks for your comments, you summed it up very well! Bring on the next one!!
Yeah, the normal bankers a 66 nowadays. Great to see them doing some real work, they've been great on the tours as well. Many thanks for watching and commenting.
Wat een spektakel ! Kippenvel (Goose Bumps)
Thank you and yes your correct. Princess Elizabeth will be on a railtour to London and will on the bridge over the Thames during the servicing break. Also, i'll be on the railtour going to London :-) Trust me the real things much better than the model, thanks for the comment.
There is a risk of a banker rear ending the train if the train has an emergency brake application ( intentional or otherwise ) just after separation. A train will stop faster than a light engine can. The risk of such an event is minuscule but in todays OH&S gone mad world, probably unacceptable. Banking with automatic couplings can be accomplished by lifting both pins after coupling and making sure that the bloke up front holds back on the power to ensure that the couplings stay together.
My birthday! Can’t remember where I was...oh well, never mind. Pannier and Lizzy? Works well for me! 77XX 0-6-0PT With tractive effort around 22000lbs...not bad!
I can't say anything more than the three-letter word used at the end of the clip! Whisky Oscar Whisky Exclamation Mark THANKS FOR UPLOADING!!!!
PS what was the 66's number?
Would the little engine just be loose coupled so that the main train can accelerate away?
@LordGeorgeRodney Thanks, glad to be of service.
amazing vid. nice one
Thank you
very very nice
Thanks!
@SuperHardTrance Your guess is as good as mine, at the end of the day we're all amateur film makers and do our best. Many thanks for your comments, your description is great!
@WHISTLEHEADtheTRAINZ No problem, I'm glad when people like the vids. Makes it worth while.
@samthegreencat47 Don't think they did, but its nice someone liked it! Thanks.
This is a GREAT video....thanks
@EssexGayBoi Cheers, the noise and smells were brilliant!